Bonfire Heart
by LadyPalma
Summary: A night in "The rabbit hole" with the precise aim to get drunk, leads to an unforeseen encouter and to unexpected revelations. Based on the song by James Blunt. Neal/Regina.


**Bonfire Heart**

_Your mouth is a revolver firing bullets in the sky__  
__Your love is like a soldier, loyal till you die__  
__And I've been looking at the stars for a long, long time__  
__I've been putting out fires all my life__  
__Everybody wants a flame, but they don't wanna get burnt__  
__And today is our turn_

He tapped the counter to the rhythm of the song he was hearing for the first time in that moment and let the alcohol slowly burn the rest of his concentration. Of course, what he had drunk until then wouldn't have been enough for a drunk, but it was just the beginning of a long night, wasn't it?

"_Lemon beer_, really?"

Lost in his sad thoughts how he was, the man almost didn't notice the woman who sat next to him and that now was looking at his nearly empty bottle with an amused smile upon her face. With a simple t-short and even a pair of jeans on, she didn't even seem herself and, as to make sure he was still sober, Neal turned completely to her and it was then his turn to smile.

"Regina" he finally said while a curious expression was forming on his face "I didn't think you were the kind of person to come to a place like this…"

Regina gave a look around, allowing her to have another taste of the atmosphere of a typical evening in "The Rabbit Hole", then she raised her shoulders and looked again at her accidental interlocutor.

"Everyone who wants to forget something comes here"

"I don't want to forget anything…"

That weak objection made her raise an eybrow and slowly shake her head.

"Emma" she bluntly said "Yu want to forget Emma and the handsome pirate that took her away from you" she continued alluding to the unexpected recent engagement of Miss Swan and captain Hook.

"I thought she was my true love" he simply answered, caught off guard by that sharp sincerity "And frankly, I don't believe you could understand these things" added then, returning the favor, in a tone harsher than he wanted.

A soft laugh escaped her lips at that naïve comment and her look fell almost unwillingly to her ring finger, where she used to put Daniel's ring.

"Oh dear, there are so many things people _believe_ to know about me" she whispered after some moments, looking up again.

Neal watched with sincere interest that series of acts and when their eyes met, he felt himself invaded by an unbearable sadness. There was something magnetic in that look that attracted him terribly.

"Why don't you tell me your side of the story, then?" he suddenly asked her hinting an almost friendly smile.

"It's a long story, Cassidy" she answered with a sigh, denying implicitly the prospective of an informal chatting with the one who was after all only the biological father of her adoptive son.

"I have all the time to listen to it… This place is open all night" he insisted widening his smile, trying to reestablish that eyed contact between them.

It was Regina this time to reflect herself in the darkness of his eyes, and it was the heat that they emanated maybe to convince her to reconsider the proposal and returning with the same availability the smile.

"Alright" she finally gave up, glancing again at the bottle of beer "But I warn you: this is a conversation that requires at least two _decent_ cocktails"

_This world is getting colder, strangers passing by__  
__No one offers you a shoulder, no one looks you in the eye__  
__But I've been looking at you for a long, long time__  
__Just trying to break through, trying to make you mine__  
__Everybody wants a flame, but they don't wanna get burnt__  
__Well, today is our turn_

An hour and some drinks after, a completely new fairytale had been told and a completely new interpretation was about to be given; just an hour and Regina released a spontaneous confession, just a hour and Neal could tell to be one of the few ones to know the real person behind the terrible mask of the Evil Queen.

"You are a _converted evil_, then" he simply murmured glancing understandingly at her.

The frowned expression on the major's face let understand all the puzzlement for that unusual definition he had given her. She shook her head and returned the look, painting it with a trace of taunt: she didn't believe that it would have taken only three glasses of rum to untie his tongue in such a strange chose of words.

"No, I'm serious, I'm not drunk" he reassured her with a smile, realizing the meaning of that eloquent look "You are a… _good without chances_ and even if the things you did are terrible, you have been driven to make them and I feel inclined to justify you"

"You are referring to my mother… To how she manipulated me"

That blunt statement wanted originally appear as a question, but ended up without the marking point and with a simple note of bitterness in the end. The man stared at her for some moments and then, maybe understanding the unpredictable change of her voice, nodded slowly.

"Yes and in a certain way Cora had been manipulated by my father… _You_ have been manipulated by my father" he continued trying to explain the best he could the tangle of considerations that had been formed while listening to her story "And all of this happened because he wanted to find _me_… Do you get what I mean?"

"That I sould get angry with you and let Snow White be?" she asked sarcastically, hinting at the barman to serve her again to drink.

"No" he immediately said, not being able anyway to hold a brief laugh at that unhappy joke "I'm saying that it's all happened because of magic, because magic creates nothing but damage and you know it better than me"

"You are right about this" Regina agreed, again serious "I lost Henry because of magic" added staring at the filled glass, getting lost for a while in her own thoughts.

Neal turned to her and at that new glimmer of her soul that she was unconsciously offering to him, and it was maybe with the same unconsciousness that he ended up taking both her hands in his.

"You haven0t lost him, Regina… You are an amazing mother, you are trying to do a thing that neither your mother nor my father did: you are choosing him, your son, instead of magic… And you made a good job with him, I mean I don't believe I could have done better" he confessed sincerely looking at her straight in the eyes.

Hearing that unexpected recognition, the woman felt suddenly her eyes filling with tears and found herself tightening that comfort that perhaps for the first time after so many years she was having. Slowly, a sincere smile appeared on her lips and a quiet tear reached them kneading them with salt.

"Thank you… Baelfire"

Normally Neal would have protested to be called by that name but instead she just smiled again.

_Days like these lead to__  
__Nights like this lead to__  
__Love like ours__  
__You light the spark in my bonfire heart_

Standing still there, sitting one beside the other in front of the counter of "The Rabbit Hole", they were ready for the fifth and last drink; _operation get drunk_ seemed to have failed miserably, but remaining almost totally sober they had obtained more than they had both hoped for that evening that didn't start with the right foot.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Go on"

Neal turned the glass in his hands and took some moments before letting win the curiosity over the sudden unknown fear that from somewhere inside of him was begging him to be quiet.

"Why did you tell me all these things? I mean… Why to me?"

Regina turned her head to him and remained to look at him in silence for a while, until the usual diplomatic irony came back on her lips.

"Doctor Hopper costs too much" she said in fact making the man laugh "But that doesn't mean why you have been listening to me with so much… attention" added then finding herself more interested than the necessary in his coming answer.

Neal, apparently not surprised at all, pulled up the money, put it on the counter and then stood up, approaching her with an enigmatic smile.

"My father and your mother had a relationships… We could have been brother and sister"

"So… Are you paying me attention just because I could have been your sister?" she asked still seated, looking up to him, unable to hide the note of disappointed in her voice.

"No" he quickly précised, bending on her face and stealing a quick kiss from her lips "Because _luckily_ you aren't"

_People like us, we don't need that much__  
__Just someone that starts,__  
__Starts the spark in our bonfire hearts_

* * *

**Hi! I don't know where this one-shot came from, I suppose I was the one drunk ahah when I first listened to this song I seriously thought the title was "Bealfire Heart" and I thought it could be a great name for a Neal/Cora pairing LOL Then, I love Regina and I love Neal, so why not try something like that? Plus, the fanfiction I've read here with this unusual pairing are really good! Let me know what you think!:)**


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